March 2 - 1962 - Wilt Chamberlain Scores 100 Points in a Single Game

In some sense, sports is one of those things that seems to not change quite as much as other aspects of life over time. Actually, legendary sports moments often reveal just how different sports were in the past. Wilt Chamberlain was a 7'1" giant, who also had a deft touch, elite athleticism, and tremendous skill, which would make him good today, but made him dominant in the 1960's. His ability to score fifty points in a game regularly was remarkable, and he broke the single game scoring record earlier in the 1962 season with 78 points. But when Chamberlain's Philadelphia Warriors played the down and out New York Knicks at the end of the season, the circumstances meant he could shatter that record. The teams were playing lax defense, and the Knicks were missing their starting center. Unusually, he also made the majority of his free throws. Yet the publicity at the time was odd. The game was played over 80 miles from Philadelphia in Hershey, Pennsylvania, as an attempt to broaden the NBA's meager fanbase. New York sportswriters did not attend, and no television broadcast exists. Still, he pulled off scoring 100 points in one game.